The present invention relates to an electronic thermometer and, more particularly, to an electronic woman thermometer for automatically detecting a basal body temperature.
The basal body temperature information is effective for birth control. However, it is not widely used because of difficulty in obtaining accurate readings. That is, the basal body temperature must be read or detected everyday at the same time. More specifically, the temperature detection must be conducted after the woman wakes up but before she gets up. Moreover, the detection operation must be conducted for more than five minutes. Therefore, the basal body temperature method is not widely used even though the basal body temperature information provides important data.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an electronic thermometer for automatically conducting the basal body temperature detection at a preselected time.
Another object of the present invention is to facilitate basal body temperature detection.
Other objects and further scope of applicability of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description given hereinafter. It should be understood, however, that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration only, since various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this detailed description.
A typical construction of a conventional electronic thermometer suited for detecting basal body temperature is disclosed in British Patent Laid Open Specification No. 2,045,480, ELECTRONIC WOMAN THERMOMETER, published on Oct. 29, 1980 and assigned to the same assignee as the present application.
To achieve the above objects, pursuant to an embodiment of the present invention, a time information keeping circuit is incorporated in an electronic thermometer. A desired detection time is preset in the electronic thermometer so that the temperature detection operation is automatically conducted at the desired preselected time. The detected temperature information is stored in a memory system of which contents are displayed on a digital display panel at any time.